Should Chico return to the team in place of Amat?

Melodramatic centre-half may struggle to regain his first-team berth...

Following on from the 1-1 draw at Norwich this Sunday, there seems to have been an outpouring of praise for our other Spanish centre-half - Jordi Amat. I won't have been alone in reserving judgement on the man acquired from Espanyol this summer, but this was mainly based on his level of physicality, and when you consider how young he is (especially for a centre-half), there really is reason to be hopeful we've got a player who can go on to great things during his time here.

This begs the question; should Chico automatically regain his spot? He missed the Norwich game as he was banned for accumulation of bookings, and at least one of those bookings was acquired after throwing himself to the ground like a rag doll, feigning injury. Pretty pathetic, and what's more despite Laudrup coming out in the press to say Chico needed to cut that sort of thing out he's still carried on making the meal of anything that comes anywhere near his face. Man up, mate.

As I didn't see the game at Norwich, I can't comment on Amat's performance but he does seem a very tidy player with all the attributes he needs to be a big success. He did seem to stand off Johan Elmander in the build up to Gary Hooper's goal, but you can't predict a striker will produce a finish of that calibre, and if he retained his place in the first-team I think it would send out a twofold message - one, that fringe players can expect to retain their place if they perform well and two, that needless bookings and a lack of professionalism won't be tolerated.

Personally, I've got absolutely nothing against Amat lining up instead of Chico against Everton this weekend. Whether Laudrup feels he's up to it we can't say though.

Would you prefer to see Chico reinstated against Everton or should Amat get the nod? Get involved in the comment section below!

Swansea players in international action (inc. Wales highlights)

How did our boys get on in their respective matches?

With the Swans accruing more and more current internationals, it seems we're going to have to get used to our players featuring in international friendlies, qualifiers and competitions, and while the latter is generally of no concern (as they usually fall in the summer months) extra games can sometimes take their toll on a squad. It's important players' game-time is managed well and that they don't "burn out" as the season goes on, but to the players themselves it must be a great honour to represent their country, and I doubt they'd ever want to be substituted in order to "save their legs" ahead of a club fixture. With Europa League football now guaranteed for a while to come, Laudrup will be forced into rotating his squad as the games pile up. 

Ashley Williams & Ben Davies

Laudrup had previously bemoaned Ben Davies and Ashley Williams playing the full 90 minutes for Wales in their friendly against Ireland, which fell just prior to the season starting, but he can have few qualms about the boys featuring in competitive fixtures.

Both Ash & Ben played 90 minutes for Wales last night as they went down 2-1 to Macedonia. Yep. 2-1 to Macedonia. You have to love being from Wales - in the same week it was confirmed the most expensive footballer in the world now hails from God's country, and yet we manage to lose to a side who are 89th in the FIFA ranking system. Wales are joint 46th, if you were curious. 

In a sign of things to come, Chris Coleman couldn't fly out with the squad as he'd lost his passport, and had to go to Newport (it's a bloody handy thing the passport office is in Wales, eh?) to sort it out before meeting up with the squad in Macedonia. Not the most auspicious start, and so it was that Wales fell behind to Trickovski's opener. Aaron Ramsey managed to earn and convert a penalty to restore parity to the tie but Trajkovski scored late on to seal the win for the home side.

I still don't know what to make of Chris Coleman. Sometimes I think I like the way he's trying to get the team playing football, but the main problem for me is the lack of an out and out striker. Let's hope someone produces a quality forward in the next few years, as Wales do seem particularly toothless at the moment.

Moving on...

Michel Vorm

Vorm was preferred in goal to Kenneth Vermeer, and considering Vermeer holds the Dutch record for the longest streak of international matches without conceding a goal (link) he's done well to get in ahead of the Ajax 'keeper.

The highlights seem to indicate that there was little Vorm could do about either of the goals - that Vassiljev looks a player eh? That second goal was outstanding! A great run, and a great finish - Vorm didn't do anything wrong there I think, 99 times out of 100 in that situation the player is going to shoot low(ish) and he was covering his angles well. You can't plan for that kind of finish!

Holland had Robin Van Persie to thank as he rescued a point for them late on from the penalty spot, but at the other end of the field it's good to see Vorm getting games. If he's getting picked at international level it's only going to increase his stock, and his confidence, and it's also something which could aid in the Dutchman sticking around for a long while to come. If he wasn't getting picked for Holland - perhaps because Swansea aren't yet viewed internationally as a "big team", he may look to move to a bigger club to help his international aspirations, but if he's being preferred to the Ajax keeper that's clearly not the case. Good on you, Michel, you've earned your chance.

Amat & Tancock in Under-21 action

Both these young defenders featured for their respective international sides this week, and they had very differing experiences. Tancock played 90 minutes for Wales U21's against San Marino, and they have clearly been taking after the first-team as they contrived to lose 1-0. To San Marino. 

Amat however had a very different time of it. He enjoyed a 6-2 Spanish U21 victory over Austria U21's, and from all the match reports I've read not one mentions him. To be honest, as a centre-back if you play 90 minutes and no journalist mentions any mistakes you've made throughout the game you've done well, so I'd say it's a case of "if you don't notice him, he's doing well". 

Possibly an optimistic take on a lack of information, but you need a bit of blind optimism in your life every now and again!

The Swans sign Jordi Amat, but there's still no agreement regarding Wilfried Bony

Skysports are also reporting we're close to agreeing terms with 17 year old Slovenian 'keeper Gregor Zabret

Coming as it did at a time when all the talk was of Wilfried Bony's much reported transfer to the Swans, Jordi Amat could be forgiven for feeling like the announcement of signature was somewhat underwhelming. Perhaps a better indication of the potential bargain the Swans have picked up is that his name was still trending on Twitter long into today. Whether that indicates a lot of people were talking about him or that it was a slow news days day we can't say.

If you'd like to read a bit more on Jordi Amat, I put together a profile HERE with a load of stats for your perusal. Something which is a lot easier to digest though is this; his only goal of the season last year.

While we can hardly expect him to do that kind of thing with any regularity, his stats suggest he's got an eye for a pass and can rival Ash when it comes to pinging one out to the wingers - that'll give us greater threat on the counter-attack and won't go unnoticed by the Swansea coaching staff.

Swansea close to signing Gregor Zabret

According to Skysports, the young Slovenian spent time with the Swans in January and is going to be finalising a deal over the weekend, before joining up with the club's pre-season tour of Holland. Honestly? I've never heard of the guy and there's scant information online, but I'll have a look at some point to see if I can dig up any information online. It seems he's highly rated, and he's already made quite a few appearances in the first team for NK Domzale, who finished third in the Slovenian league last year, so hopefully in time he'll turn out to be a useful addition to the squad.

No news regarding Bony move

The latest on this is likely to come down to whether you believe what you read on Twitter or not. Some sources are claiming he's asked for £80kpw in wages, which I struggle to believe, but Swans director John Van Zweden has been quoted in the Dutch press as saying the club and the player are "way apart" in terms of agreeing a deal at the moment. 

Hopefully they'll agree something, because with all the fanfare now surrounding this move it would be a real shame to miss out - and it's also possibly something which could leave fans panicking that the club will be short a striker come the beginning of the season. It's not panic stations just yet, but everyone knows the Swans need a frontman and if it comes down to the wire they may well find that clubs stick an extra few million on any proposed fee. 

Which probably means we won't end up signing anyone, thinking about it...

A profile of Swansea target Jordi Amat

Young Spanish centre-back seems to fit the bill for the Swans

The latest player to be linked with a move to SA1, Amat is a 21-year old centre-back who spent this season on loan at Rayo Vallecano (from whom we signed Michu), playing 28 games in all competitions. He only scored once, but it's worth mentioning and here's why:

Wowzers. Sign him up? Let's see. 

A product of the Espanyol youth system (where he signed on as a seven year old), and after appearing for the "C" and "B" teams he made his debut in La Liga aged 17. He's gone on to make fourty-one appearances for Los Blanquiblaus but they decided a loan spell would aid his development, and so at the beginning of the season he moved from a Catalan club in the shadow of Barca, to a Madrid club in the shadow of both Real & Atletico - Rayo Vallecano.

One thing to note is that Amat picked up 12 yellows in his 28 games this season - that's almost Cheick Tioté standard! Hopefully added experience will see him mature and stop picking up so many, as it's frustrating watching a player consistently miss games through suspension. His pass accuracy this year was 81.1%(825/1017 completed) and if you compare that to Chico's 89.3% or Ash's 86.3% it's clear there's a bit of a disparity, however 21 is young for a centre-back to be a first team regular. I'd also say that any player who signs for the Swans would almost automatically see their pass success rate increase dramatically as they adjust to the style of football we play.

In action for Espanyol

The Espanyol man won 1.4 aerial duels per game (38 in total) and again this pales in significance to Chico & Ash, both of whom had around double that figure. He makes 2.3 tackles per game (Chico has 3.3 while Ash has 1.2), and 2 interceptions to boot (Chico 3.5 & Ash 3), both pretty impressive figures, and also makes a pretty tasty 5.6 clearances per game (although again this is far from the 8.7 & 10.3 managed by Chico & Ash respectively). It seems that we have two particularly tasty centre-back's at present and using them as a yardstick is making Amat look bad, so I'll try to desist from now on. 

He only gets dribbled past once every 0.6 games, and that's a very encouraging statistic for a young centre-back, while he makes on average 37.7 passes per game - about 20 less per game than the Swans centre-backs average but again, any player who joins will see their statistics (in terms of passes at least) improve. One interesting stat is that he plays 6.6 accurate long balls per game - double Chico's average and a little more than the 5.7 Ash averages. It seems he's adept at picking out a man up top or out wide, and with the Swans preferences for outlying wingers it could be that we'd see him pinging the ball out to the wing Ashley Williams stylee.

Here's some funny stats. Spot the Spaniards. Ash averages 0.1 dribbles per game, Chico 0.3 & Amat 0.6. In turn, that would account for the fact that Ash is only dispossessed once every 0.1 games too, whereas Chico & Amat both average once every other game (0.5). Amat matches the Swans' boys in turns of turnovers too (giving the ball away through poor control) - his 0.2 per game is equal to Ash's, and better than Chico's (although only slightly at 0.3). 

It seems he's a pretty tidy footballer, and if he's available for the £2million asking price that's rumoured then it would be a very prudent signature. He's likely to hold his value at the very least for that money, but I'd say if he's performing well in La Liga at 21, a move to a possession-based footballing team in a different league could well benefit him. Huw Jenkins has reportedly been meeting agents this week in a bid to get Swansea's summer shopping underway, so it shouldn't be too long until we learn of some firm targets. Until then we're all left to speculate on what may be, but I'd say he seems a very decent prospect. 

I'm still sold by the goal. How about you?